The Boys Return by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor Page B

“Even though I feel like I'm turning into a mushroom. Will this rain never stop?”
    “I'm going to miss Steve, I think, when the Bensons go back to Georgia,” said Eddie.
    “What?” cried Caroline.
    “I will. He's the nicest Benson of all.”
    “Well, I'm going to miss all the excitement,” said Caroline, “but at least I finished my school assignment, and the newspaper story makes a new page for my résumé when I become an actress. Then they'll see that I can play incredibly brave roles onstage. I'll bet I'm the only girl in the whole United States who ever locked a cougar in a garage.”
    “I don't know about that, but I'll bet you're the only girl in the whole United States who goes around bragging so much about it,” Beth told her.
    “You don't understand, Beth! Actresses need all the attention they can get to stay in the public eye. It's not wrong to go around tooting my own horn.”
    “No, but you don't have to lean on it!” said Eddie dryly.
    The girls had scarcely brushed their teeth when there was a knock on the back door. Eddie opened it.
    “Steve!” she said.
    He smiled a little shyly. “Just came over to say goodbye. We'll be leaving in a little while.”
    “Goodbye?” said Eddie. “Why, you just got here, practically.” She saw the other boys coming across the yard behind him.
    “I know. But Mom wants a day to get the laundry done and everything before we start back to school,” Steve said. “So we're going home this morning.”
    Eddie and her sisters stepped out on the back porch. “We didn't get to do half the stuff we really wanted,” Caroline complained.
    “We didn't either,” Doug piped up. “We were going to wave sheets in front of your window and make you think it was ghosts.”
    “Shut up, Dougie,” Bill told him.
    “And Steve was going to slip a note under your door,” said Peter.
    “Shut up !” said Steve. His face turned pink.
    Eddie's did as well.
    “Have you decided whether or not to move back to Buckman?” Beth asked Tony.
    “I don't know. Dad hasn't said. What about you?”
    “We don't know either. Maybe it depends on what your dad does,” said Beth.
    “I guess there's not room for two football coaches at the college,” said Eddie. “What they should do is start a baseball team or something.”
    “Yeah,” said Steve. “That would be neat.”
    There was a blast from a horn across the river. “We've got to go,” Tony said. He looked at Jake. “You guys better write to us, okay?”
    “Yeah, now that we've met the Whomper, the Weirdo, and the Crazie, you have to keep us posted on what they do,” said Danny, and he and Bill grinned.
    “That's us, I suppose? Ha, ha, ha!” said Eddie.
    “Hope you make the team, Eddie,” said Steve, smiling at her.
    “I'll write you if I do,” she said. “Hope you don't hear any more ghosts, Beth,” said Tony.
    “Hope you get laryngitis, Caroline, and can't talk for a month!” said Bill. The boys laughed, and so did Caroline.
    The horn sounded again, and the Benson boys set off down the hill beside the Hatfords.
    “I never thought I'd miss those guys, but I will,” said Beth.
    “I never thought I'd miss boys at all, but I do,” said Eddie.
    “But isn't it nice just to be sisters again and not have them coming over every day, climbing all over the loft and tracking mud up on the porch with their stinky shoes?” said Caroline.
    “No,” answered Beth and Eddie together.
    That night, Caroline lay in bed thinking about school, and about how she might be asked to describe for the class how she had caught the cougar. I know! she thought. Wally and I can do it together! He can stand up on Miss Applebaum's desk and pretend it's the loft, and I'll be down below… She felt herself drifting off into a dream about cougars and firemen and Wally Hatford when she suddenly heard a tap… tappitytap…tap…tap…tap… tap.
    She opened her eyes.
    Tap…tap… tap, it came again.
    Caroline turned and looked at the